CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

1998

Monitoring the Israeli-Palestinian Security Agreement

Reportage to 26 October 1998

Materials arranged chronologically.

Weiner, Tim. "C.I.A. Is Teaching Tricks of the Trade to the Palestinians." New York Times, 5 Mar. 1998, A1, A9 (N).

"With Israel's knowledge, C.I.A. counter-terrorism and covert-operations officers have been instructing senior and mid-level Palestinian security officials" in information-gathering, interrogation, and "other techniques of the trade." In the mid-to-late 1970s, the CIA had established ties with the PLO, only to have them broken when Ali Hassan Salemah was killed in 1979 and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983.

"The CIA has emerged from the shadows of
diplomacy to play a unique, highly visible role in the Middle East peace
process, mediating disputes between Israeli and Palestinian security forces
and participating in negotiations over an elusive security agreement critical
to completion of a final peace accord."

Weiner, Tim. "Intelligence Chief Steps Up to Play a Key Mideast Role." New York Times, 23 Oct. 1998. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"[T]his week [DCI George J.] Tenet has been center stage, pressing the Israelis and Palestinians to make peace. Their talks have been hanging on a crucial question. Can he create a measure of trust and cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian spy services? It is a role that he has played since 1996, shuttling in secret to Jerusalem and the West Bank."

DCI George J. "Tenet and the CIA have been deeply involved in the Middle East peace talks in an increasingly public fashion since the process nearly collapsed in the fall of 1996, using the agency's longstanding relationships with Israeli and Palestinian intelligence agencies to broker cooperation between the two over anti-terrorist security issues critical to a final peace accord."

Former DCI "Robert M. Gates said there is 'ample precedent' for the CIA's involvement in high-level negotiations and in monitoring compliance with security agreements. But Gates acknowledged that the CIA's highly visible role in the negotiating process and its day-to-day role in monitoring compliance with the accord signed [on 23 October 1998] do entail 'some downside risks.'"

SSCI Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-AL) on 25 October 1998 "described as 'troubling' the Clinton administration's plan to use the CIA to monitor anti-terrorism efforts in the Mideast and said his committee would hold hearings on the issue."